![\"pams-students-at-board-meeting\"](\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/PAMS-students-at-board-meeting.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOctober is recognized as Disability History and Awareness Month in Virginia. Princess Anne Middle School (PAMS) eighth-grader Ainsley Proctor wants people to know that October is also National Dyslexia Awareness Month.<\/p>\n
\u201cDyslexia Awareness Month is an opportunity to enlighten educators and the community about dyslexia and to celebrate the many achievements of those with dyslexia,\u201d Proctor told school board members at their Sept. 20 meeting at which they approved a resolution recognizing Dyslexia Awareness Month.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike what most people believe,\u201d continued Proctor, \u201cthose of us with dyslexia don\u2019t read backward. We also don\u2019t write backward, and we don\u2019t have low IQs. People with dyslexia are highly-intelligent and creative thinkers who can and do excel in the classroom when their dyslexia is identified early and remediated using evidence-based instruction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Supporting Proctor at the school board meeting were PAMS students Logan Hight and Andrew Glatt.\u00a0The three students, who have worked to overcome their own challenges with dyslexia, are also involved with the Hampton Roads Chapter of Decoding Dyslexia Virginia. Proctor said the organization works to build awareness for the learning disability.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a support group,\u201d explained Proctor. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to get bills passed.\u00a0I went to Richmond in February when they were passing [House Bill] 842. I just wanted to be there when they passed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bill, effective July 1, 2017, requires that teachers seeking licensure or renewing a teaching license will need to complete awareness training on the indicators of dyslexia as well as interventions and accommodations for dyslexia. The legislation also requires teacher preparation programs to convey information on the identification of students at risk for learning disabilities, including dyslexia, other language-based disabilities and attention deficit disorder.<\/p>\n
The importance of early identification and intervention was noted by Proctor during an interview at her school.\u00a0Diagnosed with dyslexia in the second grade at the private school she attended,\u00a0Proctor reflected, \u201cI didn\u2019t get the help I needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
She knows now, she wasn\u2019t alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwenty percent of our school population has [dyslexia]. So someone you know has it,\u201d said Proctor. \u201cAnd currently kids with dyslexia don\u2019t get the help they need and that\u2019s what I really want to get across so that those kids don\u2019t drop out of school and don\u2019t fall behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey actually wanted to keep me behind in first grade,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Now in eighth grade, Proctor said she has overcome her dyslexia after having gone through the Wilson Reading System program with a tutor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still have little challenges,\u201d she said, \u201clike left and right.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"ainsley-at-pams\"](\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Ainsley-at-PAMS.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Her experience with the Wilson Reading System was so positive that she hopes to be a tutor for the program one day.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I also really want to be an orthodontist. That\u2019s really my passion,\u201d she said, smiling with braces on of her own. \u201cI love science. I\u2019m taking earth science right now and it\u2019s so fun. I enjoy it a lot. I love braces.\u00a0I mean I don\u2019t love<\/em> them, but\u00a0I would love to pursue that as a career and then maybe [tutor] on the side.\u201d<\/p>\n In the meantime, Proctor said she, Hight and Glatt will continue their advocacy.<\/p>\n \u201cLike I said, it effects 20 percent of our school population, so we really want to spread awareness for it and help those kids with it.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" October is recognized as Disability History and Awareness Month in Virginia. Princess Anne Middle School (PAMS) eighth-grader Ainsley Proctor wants people to know that October is also National Dyslexia Awareness […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":5623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[87],"class_list":["post-5621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-princess-anne-middle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5624,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5621\/revisions\/5624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}